Sunday, June 12, 2016

If you did not know, Game Design Aspect of the Month (GDAM) started in 2009 as an initiative of the nascent IGDAGame Design SIG. Topics were submitted and voted upon each month and then the entire month was devoted to that one game design topic. The reasoning behind this was to encourage responses from the community to each other's articles and to really delve into a game design topic seriously. In addition, each topic was accompanied by a podcast, whereby members of the community would get together and discuss the topic.

Although the production quality was low, the podcasts were popular. However, handling the organization of a podcast each month was too much for me to handle on my own. If anyone would like to help out in this endeavor, please let me know. I would like to get this started up again, in some fashion or other. It probably will not be on a monthly basis, though!

As you have probably noticed, though GDAM has maintained its original name, the monthly focus is no longer. I still welcome articles and topic suggestions from the community but there is no longer the monthly poll. However, I'd like to put up this poll as to what would be the topic of the next podcast. Please look to the right to put in your vote!

Saturday, June 4, 2016

In this article, game designer Sande Chen explores the nature of disability in video games.

After seeing this emotional video of a young girl receiving an American Girl doll with a prosthetic leg, I can see that character representations in games and toys do matter. "A doll like me," the girl says, overcome with tears of joy. It's only natural that a girl with a prosthetic leg would want a doll with a prosthetic leg. Those with disabilities want their favorite toys to reflect their own lives.

When I've had occasion to play with children online in games with character creation tools, I've found that they like to make characters that look like them. They adjust skin tone as much as eye and hair color. They want female characters to be in the game world as much as male characters. I have never seen disabled characters as an option. Granted, it might not fit in with the narrative fiction, but most games have fantasy elements (I'm counting even power fantasies), so why not an avatar in a wheelchair?

I know that there have been games made especially for the blind or for those with learning disabilities. There have been games that try to make us feel like a schizophrenic or a depressed person. A lot of developers are recognizing the need for accessibility options, whether it's a different color scheme for the colorblind or a way to customize keys. These options concern disabled players, but what about disabled characters in games?

Among disabled game characters, there's been amputees who gained a high tech appendage or characters who viewed their disabilities as something to overcome. I think I would prefer it if the stories didn't focus too much on their disabilities. Perhaps the disability is even an advantage, much like in the movies Notting Hill and Four Weddings and a Funeral. Those characters do have a back story about their disabilities, but they don't dwell on it. Although their disabilities are obvious, they have accepted the way they are and the way life is for them.
Sande Chen is a writer and game designer whose work has spanned 10 years in the industry. Her credits include 1999 IGF winner Terminus, 2007 PC RPG of the Year The Witcher, and Wizard 101. She is one of the founding members of the IGDA Game Design SIG.